Mull Historical Society
Us

(Beggars XL)

First Appeared at The Music Box, September 2003, Volume 10, #9

Written by T.J. Simon

Like The Streets, Mull Historical Society isn’t really a band. Instead, it’s a one-man show for Colin MacIntire, an immeasurably talented young man who seemingly came out of nowhere to create Us, his second album. MacIntire wrote, produced, and arranged the entire orchestral pop release, and he also provided all the vocals and played nearly all of the instruments. One can envision MacIntire camped out for months in front of his studio mixing board to achieve such a dense and layered soundscape as heard on the tracks Gravity and Am I Wrong.

The sound of Mull Historical Society is a delicious pop smoothie with scoops of Robbie Williams (Don’t Take Your Love Away), The New Pornographers (The Final Arrears), and Spiritualized (Us) slurped through Brian Wilson’s crazy straw. Live Like the Automatics, a Beach Boys homage with a mod twist, sets the bar high as the album’s finest cut. At 14 songs, plus a "bonus" track buried after a minute of silence at the end — note to music industry: Knock that off, okay? — Us might have benefitted from an outside producer who could have gently told MacIntire to leave behind some of the weaker ballads, such as Her Is You. Nevertheless, Us proves to be quite an enjoyable release, and it’ll be a pleasure following the upward trajectory of MacIntire’s career as he begins work on album number three.

Us is available from Amazon.com.
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Ratings

1 Star:   Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2003 The Music Box